By Cheryl Kuck, The Brandon News & Tribune
August 01, 2011

PLANT CITY — Veterans who sailed aboard a destroyer that shuttled dignitaries to the Japanese surrender in 1945 met at a local hotel to look back at ship’s storied history.

Tributes to fallen heroes, camaraderie, laughter and a few tears were all a part of the 14th reunion of various crews who served on the USS Rogers – a ship that saw its share of action over four decades. (more…)

By Bruce Kauffmann for the Appeal-Democrat
July 30, 2011

At the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, a sign asks the question that most visitors probably ask themselves: Why is New Orleans the host city for a museum dedicated to World War II?

The answer is simple. It was home to the man who, as Supreme Allied Cmdr. Dwight Eisenhower once put it, “won the war for us.”

Andrew Jackson Higgins, who died this week in (Aug. 1) in 1952, was the founder of Higgins Industries, a New Orleans-based shipbuilding firm (more…)

By Todd G. Dickson, Las Cruces Bulletin
July 29, 2011

Like many World War II veterans, 87-year-old Florentino Castillo hasn’t talked much about his war experiences. More than 60 years after he entered battle, the memories are still hard for him to describe.

But Castillo’s family want his story to be known as the Silver Star veterans now wages another silent battle, this time with lung cancer.

Born in Texas and raised in New Mexico, Castillo was 18 when drafted in to the Army in 1942.

As a member of an artillery platoon, he wasn’t among those who had to (more…)

By TJ Jerke, Associated Press
July 28, 2011

WILLMAR — After he pledged to speak 400 times in 20 years about the horrors of World War II, Larry Tillemans hit his mark June 2. He continued his mission Wednesday afternoon at the Willmar Rotary Club meeting with his 408th speaking event.

Tillemans, of St. Joseph, spoke to a crowd of more than 100 in Willmar about his time in the service and the year he spent working in the courtroom as a clerk typist during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials in 1945.

“There is nobody left to talk about it,” (more…)

By Susan Morse, seacoastonline.com
July 27, 2011

YORK, Maine — Last week, World War II photographer’s mate Ed Bulber crossed the country from California to York to visit friend and fellow veteran Robert Fallavollita of Airport Drive.

What’s so unusual about this weeklong visit is that the men haven’t seen in each other in 66 years. The Internet helped reunite them.

Bulber, 83, and Fallavollita, 84, spent the war developing film taken by other Naval photographers, including photos of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1945 (more…)